


A Second Date

by TheLordOfLaMancha



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M, Science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-11 00:36:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2046339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLordOfLaMancha/pseuds/TheLordOfLaMancha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cecil is excited when Carlos calls him and asks if they can go on a second date to the newly opened Night Vale Science Center. But an encounter with one of Carlos' experiments reveals one of Cecil's only fears and past experiences with re-education.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Second Date

**Author's Note:**

> First time writing WTNV. Bear with me. It's one hell of a style.

“And now, the weather,” Cecil drawled, dragging out the suspense of his listeners.

And not even a few seconds into the song, his phone began literally growling at him. Cecil picked up the device and began to stroke it, soothing it before bringing it to his ear. The display had read “Carlos,” and Cecil held his breath with a combination of nerves and elation.

“Hello?” Cecil asked, his voice ever so slightly higher than his normal golden voice.

“Hey, Cecil?” the voice asked, and took everything Cecil had not to squeal with pleasure at the perfect, perfect voice on the other end of the line. He began to spin his chair to control himself.

“Yes?” Cecil replied, his voice far too high. Carlos laughed lightly on the other end of the line.

“I was just thinking,” Carlos began. “I mean we went out last week, did you want to do that again sometime?”

Cecil flushed a shade of crimson that probably would have caused the scientist great concern. He bit his fingernail and curled in tighter on the chair as the studio spun in a blur past him. _A second date!!!_ Cecil’s thoughts raced. He coughed to clear the excitement from his throat.

“O-of course, Carlos, that’d be neat!” Cecil replied, and mentally slapped himself for his inability to speak like a normal glow cloud worshipper to the scientist with perfect, perfect hair.

“And I was thinking,” Carlos continued. “Since you got to pick the place last time, I was thinking I could pick this time.”

“Where were you thinking?” Cecil asked.

The spinning slowed and he came back to himself. The purple light pulsed on his desk that warned him the weather was nearly over.

“I was wondering if we could go to the new science center,” Carlos inquired. “We just opened it last week. Thought it would be a good way to teach the residents of Night Vale some of the science in their community.”

The shadows lengthened on the walls of the studio as Cecil began to _glow_. His face split into a smile.

“That sounds great,” Cecil replied. “This is why Night Vale needs you and your team of scientists.”

“Thanks Cecil,” Carlos replied, and you could almost hear the flush in his voice. “I’ll see you Saturday?”

“Okay,” Cecil said, his toes curling over the edge of the chair. “Be safe.”

“You too,” Carlos replied and hung up.

Just then, the weather ended and eye on the wall blinked open, indicating that the radio was now live. Cecil’s eyes clouded over white and focussed as he returned to his broadcast.

“Oh listeners,” Cecil breathed, his rich voice crisp with delight. “I have the most _marvellous_ news. Carlos just called…”

And somewhere on the other side of Night Vale, a scientist sighed.

That Saturday came sooner rather than later in Night Vale, considering that Wednesday had yet again been cancelled due to a scheduling error. Cecil waited on the doorstep of Carlos’ laboratory, and considered issuing a battle cry into the neighbouring window, as was the customary greeting in this kind of scenario. However, Cecil had never been entirely comfortable with this particular social convention, and his current state of nervousness inhibited much movement. And as such, the door of the laboratory was opened slowly by Carlos, who found Cecil lying in front of it, nervously fidgeting with the hem of his tunic.

“You alright Cecil?” Carlos asked, and withheld his concern at first in favour of curiosity. This was Night Vale after all.

“Carlos!” Cecil shouted, standing and launching himself into hugging Carlos closely.

Carlos was startled at first, and a bit confused when he was almost certain he heard Cecil _purring_ , but eventually returned the hug.

“Good to see you too, Cecil,” Carlos said, and Cecil pulled back to look into Carlos’ eyes. Carlos looked back into Cecil’s remarkably violet, swirling endless voids and lost himself. They were wide with excitement and the irises almost iridescent. It was Cecil’s eyes that had first caught Carlos’ attention. They way changed and shift colour. It was magnificent and fascinating and constant and very much alive.

Carlos reached up and took hold of Cecil’s hand. He could hear Cecil’s breath catch at the action and smiled, a bit flustered. Cecil’s tattoos wound down his wrist and up onto Carlos’ like ribbons linking their hands together. Carlos would admit that it was still slightly unnerving and the tattoos tickled slightly, but he was getting used to it.

“Come on, you,” he said, tugging Cecil along behind him. “Let’s go.”

The two walked hand in hand in the cool desert night. The science center wasn’t far from Carlos’ laboratory, and Carlos swung their hands back and forth as Cecil looked away shyly. The tattoos slid and twisted between their arms with the mood. He bumped Cecil with his shoulder, and was rewarded with a passive smile and a jeering sigh.

“Do you feel it?” Cecil asked as they walked.

“Feel what?” Carlos said softly, genuinely feeling nothing but Cecil’s warm and erratic heartbeat in the palm of his hand and a fluttering, uplifting feeling in his stomach. This was a rare moment of mundane for Night Vale and Carlos was revelling in it.

When Carlos glanced over at Cecil, he noticed his eyes were clouded over and he could no longer feel the tickle of the tattoos along his arms. They had returned to Cecil and were glowing faintly purple.

“The city,” Cecil said, gazing into the middle distance. “The ground, the people, the lingering electricity of the glow cloud, the piercing gaze of the Secret Police… Can you not feel the city alive?”

Carlos couldn’t say that he could. But he looked over at Cecil with a bemused smile. Such comments were not out of the ordinary with Cecil. Sometimes the radio host lost himself in the greater scheme of things.

“No I can’t,” Carlos replied quietly, raising their hands so they were in line with Cecil’s blind gaze. “But I can feel _you_ alive.”

As if they knew, Cecil’s tattoos raced up Carlos’ arm and twisted around before returning to Cecil. The radio host’s eyes came back into focus and he smiled brightly.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t know what came over me.”

They came up to the new science center, perfectly round in shape and stark white against the desert night. Mountains or hills or they were not quite sure yet what, or if they even existed, rose in the distance. The door kept moving, which never ceased to annoy Carlos, and the two walked the circumference of the building before they found it. It was like a never ending game of cat and mouse that Cecil joined into almost effortlessly, and Carlos fell into with a tried patience.

The foyer transported them to a random room, the planetarium level apparently, and Carlos guided Cecil through an exhibit on the moon cycles in Night Vale. Carlos tried to explain how the cycles corresponded to various unusual phenomenon in the city, like the biweekly bug plague and weekly sacrifice to the Smiling God. Cecil debated and asked questions and tried valiantly to understand. But in the end, Cecil just took Carlos’ hand and told him it was all very sciencey and very important he was sure.

They sat and watched the planetarium rotate through its demonstrations. Cecil watched the infinite cosmos with varying degrees of suspicion and Carlos watched Cecil’s pale face in the dark of the theatre, his heart catching at the sight of thousands of stars reflecting back onto Cecil’s face like his living tattoos and glinting off the pools of his eyes. Cecil caught him looking and glanced over with the brightest of smiles, then asked which of the many nebulae of the universe Carlos thought the glow cloud might be from.

When the demonstration ended, they wandered the endless hallways and toyed with the exhibits, Carlos trying to explain to Cecil how physics in Night Vale works differently than physics where he was from. Cecil, surprisingly, listened with rapture. Carlos was quite impressed when they reached the fog machine and Cecil managed to summon a mini tornado from nothing. Which he viewed from a safe distance as the wind blew Cecil’s shock white hair into messy tangles.

“What is this!?” Cecil exclaimed suddenly, darting over to a glass jar in the biology room.

Like a child, he began exploring it from every angle, his eyes narrowing as he looked through the formaldehyde around the object. Carlos took his time catching up, choosing instead to study excited and flustered Cecil as he approached. When he reached the glass jar, Cecil had settled into staring into its depths with each hand plastered to the side of the large casing.

“What do _you_ think it is Cecil?” Carlos asked teasing.

Cecil looked up with a confused expression, and went to work, reading the shifting texts and carved runes around the jar in search of clues or hints.

“It’s some kind of organ,” Cecil surmised, and Carlos nodded.

Cecil measured the object with his hands and even licked the jar, which was when Carlos decided to stop him.

“It’s an elephant heart,” Carlos explained.

“Where the hell did you find one of those!” Cecil exclaimed, looking at the heart more closely, his purple eyes wide. “It’s so… so… _big_!”

“It just kind of appeared in the lab one day,” Carlos explained. “We thought it would have a better home here.”

“It’s very happy here,” Cecil replied, and smiled. “But elephants aren’t nearly that big. They’re very tiny. They live in your house like the spiders that knit your socks and the faceless old woman.”

Cecil had managed to catch Carlos off guard yet again. But he quickly recouped as Cecil moved on to another exhibit.

“What?” Carlos asked. He wondered if both he and Cecil thought elephants were the same thing.

“What’s up there?” Cecil asked, pointing to a wooden box suspended in the ceiling and connected to some stairs. Someone had poured blood at the base of them to discourage visitors from going up them.

Carlos studied Cecil’s face. It was a look of apprehension, but Carlos was overwhelmed that Cecil had shown any interest at all.

“It’s an experiment,” Carlos explained, placing a hand on Cecil’s shoulder. “Would you like to see?”

Cecil looked the stairs up and down for a moment. He looked up at the box near the ceiling. He took a step back, and knotted his hands behind his back.

“Is it safe?” he asked, and Carlos could not mistake the waiver in his normally resolute voice.

“Quite safe,” Carlos said softly. “Well as safe as you can be in Night Vale. It’s a bit fun to play with too.”

“No,” Cecil tried to explain, frantically shaking his head. “Is it safe up there? Will it fall?”

“I should hope not,” Carlos replied, confused as to why Cecil was so concerned. This was the man who daily faced Station Management, and had been through the terrors of re-education more times than Carlos wanted to count.

Cecil looked over at Carlos for a minute and he took a deep breath. His face changed to one of resolution, and he nodded sharply.

“I would very much like to see your experiment,” Cecil said.

Carlos took Cecil’s hand and led him towards the stairs and around the blood puddle staining into the floor. As they climbed the stairs, Carlos looked back to see Cecil’s knuckles even whiter as he gripped the railing, his eyes closed and muttering something to himself that sounded an awful lot like _just don’t look down Cecil_.

“Are you alright, Cecil?” Carlos asked, genuine concern in his voice.

Cecil’s eyes shot open wide and he looked up at Carlos, nodding but not saying anything.

“We don’t have to do this,” Carlos said softly.

Cecil shook his head and managed to get out, “It’s alright, I’m with you.”

They both smiled and Carlos continued to lead him up the staircase slowly.

“You can open your eyes, Cecil,” Carlos whispered in Cecil’s ear. “We’re at the top.”

Cecil complied and looked around the wooden box they were standing in. After a quick glance around, he seemed a lot more comfortable. In the middle of the box, there was a hole in the floor that was lit from below, a weird clear substance flowing over the top.

“What’s got you so worked up anyways?” Carlos asked, giving Cecil the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he just didn’t like stairs. But Cecil had dropped his hand and wasn’t paying attention. He was slowly approaching the substance in the middle of the room, his head cocked with curiosity.

But before Carlos could explain anything, Cecil was looking over the edge into the never ending tunnel that fell impossibly out of the bottom of the wooded box, lit along one side into the void by a series of lamps. Cecil screamed and scrambled away from the edge, slamming himself into the side of the box and huddling on the ground. His hand covered his mouth, his eyes were closed, and Carlos could tell he was trying very hard not to cry. Carlos rushed to his side.

“Hey, hey,” Carlos said, trying to get Cecil’s attention. “It’s alright.”

Cecil shook his head.

“I… I…” Cecil tried to get out between shuttering breaths. “I’m afraid of heights. I get vertigo.”

Carlos tried very hard not to laugh at the impossibility. Of all the terrors in Night Vale, Cecil was afraid of _heights_. And for the first time, it was something scientific Carlos could deal with. It was normal. Ordinary. He knew now that Cecil was panicking up here, there would be no coming down until he overcame the fear. At least temporarily.

“You’re laughing at me,” Cecil breathed, and Carlos realized he had let slip a smile.

“I’m not, Cecil, I promise,” Carlos replied. “I’m just… amazed. It’s so ordinary. Normal even. Cecil, I can actually help you with this.”

“Really?” Cecil asked.

Carlos nodded.

“But how has this never come up before?” Carlos asked. “How do you deal with the gravity switching to the ceiling every fourteenth Thursday? And didn’t you broadcast from the roof the one time?”

“I can see the ground then,” Cecil explained. “And we live in a desert, there’s not a lot of tall buildings. It bothers me, the height, but I can deal with it.”

“Then what makes this one different?” Carlos asked hesitantly.

“Too high,” Cecil whispered. “And it’s the kind of height they use against me in re-education.”

Cecil looked away with a sort of shame and Carlos grimaced.

“Would you like to learn to overcome it?” Carlos asked, slowly holding out his hand. “Not let them use it against you? We could practice up here you know.”

Cecil eyed him with suspicion.

“I promise it’s perfectly safe,” Carlos said, standing and walking over to the edge.

Slowly, he placed one foot out onto the clear substance that bent and moved like plastic to take his weight. Carefully, he walked out to the center and stood over the void.

“It feels a bit like your floating. Like Khoshekh,” Carlos explained, trying to appeal to Cecil. “Quite a lot of fun, actually.”

Carlos returned to Cecil’s side, where he had sat up and was leaning against the wall.

“We’ll go slow. I promise,” Carlos said, holding out his hand to Cecil.

Hesitantly, Cecil took it and followed Carlos over to the edge, but sat a few feet back from it.

“I’m right here,” Carlos said. “Just look a little over the edge.”

Cecil reached out and took Carlos’ hand, squeezing it almost painfully tight. He looked over the edge and winced, pulling back. Carlos laughed lightly, and Cecil glared. Carlos crawled out onto the clear substance until he was in front of Cecil.

“If you fall, I’ll catch you,” Carlos said. “Now we’re going to put our hand out together, alright?”

Cecil nodded and placed his hand in Carlos’. Slowly, Carlos lowered their hands until Cecil was touching the substance. Cecil started to giggle.

“It tickles,” he said.

“That’s what your tattoos feel like, by the way,” Carlos explained. Cecil looked up at him and smiled.

They stayed that way for a moment or two, Cecil just feeling the surface in front of him.

“Do you trust me?” Carlos asked suddenly, and Cecil nodded. “Then come here.”

Carlos shuffled back a little to make room for Cecil to move forward. He beckoned with his hands. Putting on a brave face, Cecil moved forward, carefully testing the way. But when he got too far and could see the void beneath him, he hurried back to the edge.

“I can’t do it,” Cecil exclaimed.

“Don’t look down,” Carlos explained softly. “Look at me.”

Cecil looked up at the perfect, perfect scientist in front of him. He contemplated him for a moment, tracing his eyes, his face, his hair, _oh his hair!_ He thought about science, and normality, and everything he knew about Carlos. The town loved him. He loved him. The town trusted him. _He_ trusted him.

Meeting Carlos’ eyes, Cecil started to inch forward. The farther he got, the more Carlos smiled. It felt like being on a trapeze net at first, the way it wobbled and compensated. But the farther out he got, the more apparent Cecil was to the absence of gravity.

When he reached Carlos, he blushed and looked away as he took Carlos’ hand. In the process, he made the mistake of looking down. Squealing, he jumped and clung to Carlos, burying his face in his shoulder. But as he came to realize that he wasn’t falling, but rather floating, he started to relax. Carlos lied back on the substance and Cecil followed but still clung to Carlos’ hand, holding it close to his own heart. As Carlos glanced over, he noticed Cecil’s face betrayed his anxiety, but he seemed much more at peace.

“So this is what Khoshekh feels like?” Cecil asked.

“Yup,” Carlos replied simply.

“Thank you,” Cecil said, gently squeezing Carlos’ hand. Cecil’s tattoos had begun to chase each other between their arms again.

“Is there anything else you’re afraid of that I should know about?” Carlos asked.

Cecil thought about it pensively for a moment and then blushed, turning his face away from Carlos.

“Come on, you can tell me,” Carlos teased.

“M-most of them involve you,” Cecil tried to explain. “But not in a bad way. I’m afraid of losing you.”

Carlos nodded, remembering the sheer relief in Cecil’s voice when he survived the incident in the bowling alley.

“I’m afraid when they send you for re-education,” Carlos offered. “It’s probably really selfish, but I’m always afraid they’ll make you forget me.”

“They try,” Cecil said, and Carlos tossed him a concerned glance. “But don’t worry, they’ll never be able to.”

Cecil turned to Carlos and opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but then thought better of it. In the glow coming from beneath them, Cecil’s tongue literally sparkled gold.

“The last time I was re-educated,” Cecil began. “They pushed me off a cliff into a void. And I kept falling and falling for what felt like forever, and once the panic wore off, I started to wonder if… I started to wonder if you could die in re-education. But then just as I was reaching what must have been the end of the void and bracing myself for the imminent impact… you caught me.”

“What?” Carlos asked.

“It didn’t last long,” Cecil explained. “You disappeared quickly and soon I was running from something else. But when I was so sure I would die, you caught me.”

“Well I’m glad I suppose,” Carlos replied, not quite sure how to respond to such a thing.

“I’m glad as well,” Cecil said calmly.

After a while, they left the experiment and continued to wander the museum. They came to a tunnel with glowing walls that changed and shifted colour.

“This is one of my favourite parts of the museum,” Carlos said, and Cecil tossed him a quizzical glance.

“It reminds me a bit of the- ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD,” Cecil said, running his hand along the wall.

“It reminds me of your eyes,” Carlos breathed, and Cecil barely heard it. A thought passed through Cecil’s head.

He turned and pressed Carlos into the wall, their faces inches from each other. Cecil smiled.

“What are you doing Cecil?” Carlos asked, but he also smiled. He watched as Cecil’s eyes shifted with the changing colours of the wall. Cecil brought a finger to his lips and kissed him. Carlos leaned into it and Cecil began to glow.

Carlos would describe it as being right in a world where everything was wrong. Cecil would describe it like being warm when the world was cold. Both would probably agree that it was a bit weird and for the most part sloppy, but they wouldn’t care when they went to bed later that evening with their heads spinning.

“Oh, that,” Carlos said when they broke apart. He wasn’t sure if Cecil’s face actually was that red or if it was just the red glow of the wall.

Carlos thought about pulling Cecil’s face back and kissing him again, but Cecil interrupted his thoughts when he smiled and took Carlos’ hand.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go home.”

“If we can find the freaking exit,” Carlos complained.

“Ah, but Carlos,” Cecil explained. “That’s all part of the experience.”

“No, I’m pretty sure it’s not,” Carlos said. “It’s just Night Vale.”

Everything was just Night Vale. Except Cecil. Cecil was constant in a world of inconsistencies. And Carlos was just beginning to realize how extremely thankful he was for this one regularity.

**Author's Note:**

> So. I might have two totally awesome and incredible friends who cosplayed Cecil and Carlos at a convention in a local science center, in which many awesome photoshoots were done. In the science center there's a room of sorts connected to a staircase. In this room, using mirrors and a glass floor, it gives the impression of the floor bottoming out forever, and as you exit, the exhibit talks about vertigo and the fear of heights.
> 
> Another friend did a fanart using one of the photos as a basis, and I ended up promising I would try and write some kind of fic for it.
> 
> So half based on my friend's interpretation of the cosplay photo, and half based on our science center adventures.
> 
> Thank you friends.
> 
> In case you're interested, or want to show them love, you can see the pictures [HERE,](http://fishandchipsandvinegar.tumblr.com/post/91903563118/gifs-of-carlos-and-cecils-date-night-at-the) [HERE](http://fishandchipsandvinegar.tumblr.com/post/91905965463/more-pics-from-cecil-and-carlos-science-center) and [HERE.](http://fishandchipsandvinegar.tumblr.com/post/91906347838/the-last-of-the-date-night-pics-cecil) As well as the fanart [HERE.](http://theconfusedartist.tumblr.com/post/93185000033/the-last-time-i-was-re-educated-cecil-began)


End file.
